Go To Hell

Go To Hell is a skill- and reflexes-oriented puzzle game by Metasauce, creator of Hex Empire. One part digging game, one part physics playground, the title welds the two elements together into a tightly-structured experience that's as intriguing to play around with as it is to beat.

26 Comments

Neat game. Much as the reviewer said, I like the good realization of the simple idea.

Being "neat" though, makes a game's flaws more glaring, precisely because it's in the middle of a game you actually want to play. In this case, there's one big one, and it's the stones. It's far too easy to kill yourself with them.

1. On one hand, the timing of how long you have to press to knock dirt out from underneath one is quite non-obvious, difficult to time, and kills you instantly. It's a skill required that's not really in the spirit of the game. But I'd be willing to let it go, except that:

2. It's quite easy to push a block off the side of a ledge and somehow cause the game to decide you were crushed, as if you leapt beneath it last minute. This makes no sense, and if not a "bug" proper, is the mark of an unfinished game.

If the developer wishes to maximize the fun factor, he should fix the second, and make the first a good bit more forgiving. Otherwise, quite neat.

I like the idea of the game but it's badly executed. It's impossible to dig the ground under a rock for strategic placement of the rocks and avoid being trampled, you'll always lose a life. At least, I do. Also, the water. So annoying. Almost impossible to route into little caves of its own and you end up having to dive, dig one section then swim back up to the top for air and repeat forever and ever.

Air: not a problem. Stones: rarely a problem. But what I've learned is that, if you're ever going to Hell, pack beef jerky. Because I am just constantly dying from hunger in this game. Am I doing it wrong? Do I just keep getting these undermeated maps?

The wonky jump physics, the wildy inconsistent outcomes of certain actions, the text boxes that obscure hazards, managing health, air AND a ridiculously fast metabolism (our hero must be a shrew filled with helium) all add up to SLOPPY. Sloppy, sloppy game. 2 outta 5.

The stone wonkiness mentioned above was tricky, but you get used to these things after a couple attempts. On my third attempt I got to 521 meters and was rarely hurt by stones (though they were very useful for dealing with the lava).

Also, I reached 50 coins around 400 meters or so, which is nice. I was worried I'd have to be snagging almost all of them, but apparently there's a lot of leeway.

It's not really clear when you play, but the best way to go is to take it slow and plan your moves ahead. You only lose hunger when you dig, so you have plenty of time to decide the most efficient way to progress.

Boulders are way too lethal. I would go so far as to suggest removing death from falling boulders entirely. It doesn't really add anything to the game but cheap deaths. The starvation and the air are much more interesting mechanics.

After I've played a few times, the pop-ups get annoying. They ought to appear at the top of the screen, so I can see what's below and plan my digging. I'd also like to be able to turn them off.

The water physics are great. I'd love to see more games with a similar gimmick.

There's a way to avoid getting hit by a stone when you dig under it: when you start digging immediately press the opposite direction, and he won't stop digging, but will move away when he's done. It takes some timing, but it will save you a lot of trouble.

My feelings for this kept changing between love and hate. (mostly the hate came every time i died). But in the end I dug my way to hell, but it took patience and luck. Sometimes the lava was close to impossible to pass, and the annoying sudden-deaths while pushing a rock were unnecessary.

I think the most annoying part for me was putting powerups in impossible situations. Sure, you can put it in front of a rock, but don't put another rock next to it. Or maybe I haven't mastered digging underneath rocks without being crushed.

There needs to be a new universal rule for flash games: when the player pushes the jump button, the character SHOULD ONLY JUMP ONCE. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay to allow the character to jump eternally while the jump button is held down, and it just plain looks tacky every time I see it.

Echoing the touchiness of the boulders and steep learning curve. I feel like it could have gotten away with having a non-procedural starting area, because the first time I played, the in-game text tutorial was explaining things that had no relevance to what I was actually encountering, or explained them too late. Having that more tightly controlled would definitely help from a design perspective.

Overall fun game with great art. Just needs some work to get it cleaned up and to remove the bugs/lack of polish.

It reminds me Motherload (just like Rich said). But I think this one is funiier. The hell thing is a great idea. The rocks are not a problem, guys, you just have to get used to the time you're pressing the arrows keys down (when pushing them or when digging their bottom).

It reminds me of Miner Disturbance, though the lava is much deadlier in that one. In this, the torches are more deadly than lava, especially if they appear under a boulder you're pushing. You might not even realize it's there 'til you die.

hey, i think someone touched on this before, but anyone have any luck digging after you get to hell? I got there with 6 lives and managed to dig down straight until i got to 895 m- but since there is no food or medipacks or any of that stuff, you can't go for much longer than lives you have. I wish there was some secret level underneath hell.

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